Orange Sunrise with Flowers and Fruits, a mixed-media triptych by Daniel Gordon Courtesy the artist and Nazarian / Curcio, Los Angeles
A study in Laterality found that some greater white-fronted geese in flight look sideways more often in the presence of their mates. Researchers claimed that researchers have been underreporting same-sex sexual activity among animals, that Darwin’s frogs mate and lay their eggs while upside down, and that mature Egyptian fruit bats possess a sense of time. Florida carpenter ants selectively amputate their nest mates’ injured limbs. DNA samples extracted from bite marks on surf equipment are being used to identify the shark species responsible for attacks on humans, the ocean was found to be growing too noisy for baby oysters, MIT scientists catalogued the phonetic inventory of sperm whales, and two male lions survived a one-kilometer night swim through hippo- and crocodile-infested waters, likely in search of mates. The royal swan marker reported that the depression of the Thames population, previously noted during the late queen’s reign, continues under the king. UNESCO awarded World Heritage status to the blanket bog of Flow Country. The last stand of Key Largo tree cacti in the United States appeared to have been killed by rising seas. Giant wallabies, who became extinct 10,000 years ago, were unlikely to have been able to hop, and the extinction of the dinosaurs may have contributed to the rise of grapes. Smithsonian scientists proposed cryopreserving a bank of Earth’s biological resources in the shadowed craters of the moon.
Evidence that an aboriginal healing ritual performed for five hundred generations, in which a mulla-mullung would set alight a casuarina throwing stick covered in human or kangaroo fat and attached to a personal possession of a sick person, was discovered in Cloggs Cave. Denisovans who lived in Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau ate or otherwise made use of the corpses of the snow leopard, golden eagle, groove-toothed flying squirrel, spotted hyena, wild yak, and woolly rhinoceros. Astronomers argued that the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, defines the year as consisting of 354 days. A labyrinthine Minoan structure was discovered on Crete. A researcher noticed that a Tartessian slate tablet depicting battle scenes also contains a previously unknown alphabet. “There seemed to be a paleo-Hispanic sign,” he said. “A sign that cannot be mistaken for any other.”
Researchers proposed that medical professionals working under “neoliberal healthcare conditions” must embody the archetypes of the Medusa, the Siren, and the Witch. Two decades after beginning hypertension medication, an eighty-eight-year-old woman presented with late-onset drug-induced hallucinations that initially featured plants and insects and later incorporated monks, nuns, and priests. Computer scientists hoped to reduce the hallucinations of AI systems involved in critical national infrastructure. The Journal of Pediatric Genetics retracted a study on Islamic beliefs concerning the possible supernatural causes of birth defects on the grounds that the research lacked a scientific basis. More time spent listening to the radio was negatively associated among Senegalese women with the belief that one can get HIV from witchcraft. Living near oil and gas development sites depresses people who are trying to get pregnant. Wildfires near Canadian mines were found to have released unprecedented levels of arsenic, and wildfires in Maui were making residents unhappy. Native Hawaiians age faster than Japanese Hawaiians. The birth of a white buffalo fulfilled a Lakota prophecy portending better times.
